Hawks thriller pulls in highest NHL TV rating in 16 years

Last night's triple-overtime Blackhawks victory in game one of the Stanley Cup Final received a 25.1 overnight TV rating in Chicago, a 49 percent increase from game one of the Hawks' 2010 final series against the Philadelphia Flyers, NBC announced.

That rating, combined with an even higher number in Boston (28.1), turned out a national TV rating of 4.8, the NHL's highest national rating since the 1997 final between Detroit and Philadelphia, which aired on Fox and pulled in a 5.2 rating.

The Boston rating also marked a 10 percent increase from game one of the Bruins' 2011 final series against Vancouver.

The five markets with the highest local ratings for the game, according to NBC: